What Is a Hard Inquiry?

You may have heard that a hard inquiry can hurt your credit score. But you may not be sure what that means — what is a hard inquiry anyway? Hard inquiries are created when you apply for

You may have heard that a hard inquiry can hurt your credit score. But you may not be sure what that means — what is a hard inquiry anyway? Hard inquiries are created when you apply for credit. They can potentially drop your credit scores, which can result in higher interest rates when you borrow.

On large loans, like those for a car or home, a drop of even a few points can mean a higher interest rate. And that may mean you will end up paying more over the life of the loan.

What Is a Credit Inquiry?

An inquiry is created when your credit report is accessed by a business. Let’s say you apply for a car loan, and the lender requests your credit report and score from Experian. The fact that your credit information was used by a particular company will be noted on your Experian report with the date, name of the company that requested it, and the type of inquiry that was made.

Before we get into the specifics of how inquiries work, it is important to put them into perspective. Unless you have been shopping heavily for credit (more on that in a moment), they shouldn’t have a significant impact on your credit scores.

New credit, which includes inquiries as well as new credit accounts, makes up just 10% of your FICO score. As a result, a single inquiry is likely to drop your score by less than five points, but only if it’s a hard inquiry and with the limits described below.

While inquiries remain on your credit reports for two years, only those within the past year count, at least with the majority of score models used these days. Older ones are ignored.

What Is a Hard Credit Inquiry?

Hard inquiries, otherwise known as hard pulls, can affect your credit scores greatly. They show you have applied somewhere to get credit, whether that’s a car loan, mortgage, student loan or credit card. Each of these credit checks counts as an inquiry and indicate a lender has reviewed your credit because you have applied to borrow from them.

A hard credit inquiry can typically drop your credit score by between five and ten points which can seriously affect your overall credit score. Be mindful of the credit you are applying for and how many times you are applying because each inquiry will be added, and you will then have multiple inquiries listed on your credit report.

However, if you have multiple hard credit inquiries from the same company such as an auto, mortgage, or student loan lender in a short amount of time, they will not affect your credit score as greatly.

What Is a Soft Credit Inquiry?

Soft credit inquiries, otherwise known as soft pulls, are not generated by shopping for credit and do not affect your overall credit scores. For example, a lender sending you a preapproved credit offer without you applying is a soft credit inquiry.

Checking your own credit score is also a soft credit inquiry. Similarly, if you already have a credit card or loan with a lender, they may review your account from time to time. The resulting account review inquiry will not show up when lenders request your reports or scores.

Also, any inquiries generated by an employer or an insurance company to check your credit history are ignored for the purposes of calculating your scores. (Not sure where your credit stands? You can check two of your scores for free on Credit.com. As we have explained, checking your scores will not harm them in any way.)

A soft credit inquiry will generate the same information that a hard credit inquiry would generate including your payment and credit history, debt management, any derogatory marks you may have, and your credit score.

Soft inquiries often typically occur without you even realizing they are happening. If you are unsure of the type of pull or inquiry a company is going to perform on your credit, then you need to make sure to ask them if it will be a hard credit inquiry or a soft credit inquiry. You can then check with the three credit bureaus to determine if the information you were given regarding the inquiries is accurate.

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How Can I Keep My Credit Scores from Dropping?

There are several ways to minimize the likelihood that your scores will drop due to hard inquiries. Here are a couple of them:

Shop Around

Looking for a mortgage, car loan or student loan? It’s a good idea to limit your shopping to a two-week period. If you do, it’s likely those applications will only count as a single inquiry. That’s because most scoring models count all inquiries of one of those types as one, provided they take place within a 14- or 45-day period (depending on the model being used).

Monitor Your Credit

It is wise to check your credit report and credit scores before you shop for any kind of credit. You should then do your homework and try to apply for loans and credit for which you are more likely to qualify.

If you review your credit reports and see a hard credit inquiry or hard pull listed but don’t recognize the name of the company, then you should make sure it’s not a promotional credit inquiry. If it is, you were probably sent an offer for preapproved credit, and have nothing to worry about. (You can opt out of preapproved offers on the Federal Trade Commission website.)

If that’s not the case, the contact information for that company should be listed on your report so you can get in touch with them. If that information isn’t provided, be sure to ask the credit reporting agency for it. From there, you can work together to remove the error from your credit report.

How to Monitor My Credit

Monitoring your credit is a relatively easy task and should be done regularly to help counter any instances of fraud or identity theft. It will also go a long way in helping you to find any inaccuracies there may be on your credit reports so that you can report them and possibly have the damaging record removed and help improve your credit score.

Some may overlook monitoring the hard credit inquiries found on their credit report because they may not think they are such a big deal and they don’t carry much weight. However, this is wrong.

Looking at all of the inquiries made on your credit reports, including hard pulls and soft pulls, will show you who has been pulling your credit. They can also tip you off to any accounts that have been opened that you aren’t aware of or you didn’t authorize.

Can You Remove Inquiries from Your Credit Report?

As mentioned earlier, soft credit inquiries do not negatively affect your credit score, but hard credit inquiries can. If you would like to remove hard credit inquiries from your credit report, you will have to dispute the hard inquiry with the creditor or with the three credit bureaus.

If not disputed or removed, the hard credit inquiries will stay on your credit report for up to two years, and each time the hard pull is made, it can be reported by any or all three of credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion depending on the credit pull. Therefore, every time it is reported and logged, it can have damaging effects on your credit score.

Hard credit inquiries also account for approximately ten percent of your total score. To begin the process of removing the hard inquiry, you can contact the creditor that performed the inquiry and ask that they remove it. Or you can dispute the inquiry and say that you never authorized it.

If you choose to dispute the authorization of the hard pull on your credit report, then the creditor will have to garnish proof of authorization for the hard credit inquiry made on your account. When you dispute a hard inquiry with the credit bureaus, you will also have to claim that there was no permissible purpose for the inquiry.

After disputing with the credit bureaus, a fraud alert may be placed on your credit account and then going forward, every time you apply for credit over the next ninety days, they will have to take the steps to verify your identity prior to providing any type of credit.

This article has been updated. It was originally published September 19, 2013.

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http://www.credit.com/ Credit.com Credit Experts

Applying for credit typically causes a small, temporary drop in your credit score. But having additional credit available may actually help your score, because it can help your credit utilization ratio (the amount of credit you are using compared with the amount available). You want to keep that at no more than 30%. To find out how it affects you personally, you can get a free credit score from Credit.com that comes with a breakdown of the factors determining your score.

Michelle

How often are credit reports updated? I paid off a major credit card in March and according to my most recent credit report a balance is still showing.

Nicole – Inquiries typically don’t drop credit scores by more than 4 – 7 points or so, so it’s probably not a big deal as far as your credit goes. The loan itself is the bigger deal!

Chuck

I’ve seen many articles explaining how soft inquiries don’t negatively effect your credit score. But I never saw a clear explanation of what exactly a soft inquiry is? Meaning, what info does the credit bureau provide to those who make soft inquiries? Do they just verify the name/DOB/address, or do they tell the Inquirer how many credit cards I have and if I ever missed a payment etc.? Is the exact same info furnished to a soft Inquirer as to a hard Inquirer?

David

The difference is essentially that a hard inquiry is defined as one that you initiate for the purpose of obtaining a loan. These will “count against you”.

If a bank does their own inquiry for their own purposes to market material to you or target you for a loan product then it is a soft inquiry and will not “count against you”

The information in the report will vary by the type of inquiry the bank does. They may just pull a score, they may pull a full report.

If they are looking a full report then you should know whats on there. Check out annualcreditreport.com for your once per year free full report (no score).

Bill

I tried buying a new car a short time ago, but changed my mind due to some unrelated family issues. Those are now taken of and I’ve stated again. Now I find out that there over 20 hard hits on my credit report from dealers checking for car loan rates for me from before. Five, from one dealer alone. This is killing me credit wise. Why is one dealer checking five times for a best rate for me five hard hits? none of these resulted in anyone loaning me anything. Experian doesn’t seem to care, and are no help. What, if anything can I do?

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

Bill – It’s true that once they are on there they are hard to get removed. After a year most credit scoring models ignore them and they will come off your report in two years. In the meantime, many credit scoring models will ignore multiple car loan inquiries in a short period of time. So depending on which model the next lender uses it may not hurt your credit scores. I’d suggest next time, though, that you only check in one place to see if you can get a good rate. One possibility is a credit union. If you don’t already belong to one, you can find credit unions that offer car loans nationally here.

Audrey

I had my wallet stolen late last week, so I set fraud alerts with all the credit bureaus. Today, I received a call asking if I had attempted to open an account with a retailer. I had not. Now I’m finding a hard inquiry on my credit report. How do I get rid of that

http://www.credit.com/ Credit.com Credit Experts

Audrey —
A bigger problem is that it appears you have become a victim of identity theft. Fraud alerts were a good start, and they have given you an early warning that your information is being misused. Now it becomes crucially important to check your credit reports and keep an eye on your credit scores. You can track them on Credit.com, with updates every 30 days (and it’s free). Here’s how to get your free annual credit reports. Check your credit report, particularly, for any accounts you don’t recognize, and alert the credit bureaus if you spot a potential problem. (And don’t worry about any potential damage to your score from a hard inquiry — you had already reported it would likely be fraud, so it shouldn’t hurt your score.) Here are some resources that may be useful.

The name of the company checking your credit report must be listed under the inquiries section. There should be contact information for that company as well, but if there isn’t you can ask the credit bureau for that.

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

If your credit scores very strong then you shouldn’t have a problem qualifying for the apartment that you want to rent. To minimize the number of inquiries created, you might try showing them a copy of your credit report and asking them to prequalify you before you apply. (They may want to pull their own copy for a final review but at least this could show them that you have excellent credit.) As for the inquiries that are generated, keep in mind that they are only reported for two years and under most credit scoring models they only affect your credit for the first year.

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

Not necessarily. They don’t have to warn you or get your permission unless it is for employment. But they must have permissible purpose; to extend credit or review an insurance application for example.

Erick

I received a hard inquiry on my credit and then a new credit card on my mail box. What can I do, if I don’t requested any of both.

http://www.credit.com/ Credit.com Credit Experts

Call the credit card issuer and cancel the card, explaining the situation. It is possible there was a same name mixup, but it is also possible someone applied for a card in your name and planned to steal it from your mailbox. You may want to set up a fraud alert on your credit reports. You can find more here:What’s a Credit Freeze?

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

I am not sure I understand the situation fully. Sometimes companies will disclose a range of APRs and will not tell you what rate you qualify for until you apply and they check your credit. Is that what you are talking about?

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

Hmmm…that is confusing. Have you checked your credit reports to see what’s going on? Here’s how to get your free annual credit reports.

http://www.credit.com/ Credit.com Credit Experts

If you mean if you and the company don’t end up as lender/borrower or issuer/cardholder, no. The hard inquiry remains for up to two years. It causes a small, temporary dip in your scores. There are special provisions in which multiple inquiries count as just one (as in when you are shopping for a home mortgage), but a hard inquiry indicates only that you applied for credit — not whether your application was accepted or rejected, or you ultimately decided against the financial product.

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

This is actually a pretty common practice among card issuers.

Candice

I was recently pre approved for a new credit card with better reward point then my exciting card. I decided to go ahead with it. Now here’s the issues , I went in to speak with my bank rep and have the new credi card replace the existing one and not apply for a new card , transfer it over, ( because I was already pre approved) but the girl messed up and ended up starting a new application for it and not not just transfer over to a different card. So now I have a hard hit on my credit. I have a high score but I’m not happy with this mistake. Is there a way to get it removed from my history because it wasn’t my fault?

http://www.credit.com/ Credit.com Credit Experts

You could call the credit company to ask, but the dip in your credit score should be small and temporary. Unless you are about to apply for a mortgage or make some other large purchase, it’s probably not worth worrying about.

Tlaw2

In Feb last year I bought a new car, resulting in 5 hard inquiries on one day. Did the same in Aug for another vehicle, resulting in 6 inquiries. In late December applied for a mortgage, resulting in 2 more hard inquiries. These are all showing up on my credit reports. Are they negatively impacting my score? If so, can I dispute them as 1 inquiry each instead of 13 individual inquiries?

http://www.credit.com/ Credit.com Credit Experts

They stay on your credit reports for a year, but they don’t generally have an impact after 6 months. A hard inquiry can cause a small, temporary dip in your credit. It sounds as if the only ones that could be hurting your scores at this point would be two inquiries from December, and they won’t have much impact now (March).

arthur ford

I have a good credit score. I don’t have a exstensive credit history though. I just approved for a 2000$ credit at best buy I was going to apply for a credut card at office depot as whele in the same week. Will that look bad on my credit score?

http://www.credit.com/ Credit.com Credit Experts

You can do it, but be aware that multiple small decreases in your credit score can add up. And a hard inquiry does cause a small, temporary drop in your credit score. If you are looking to make a big purchase (house, car) in the near future, it would be smart to wait. Also, take care to apply only for credit you are relatively certain you will get. Because if you get turned down, you still lose a few points on your credit score without getting credit in return.

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

Usually soft inquiries are for preapproved offers so the issuer will set the parameters and get a list of customers who meet those qualifications. They usually don’t see the credit report at all; the mailing is handled through a mailing service. Similarly with an account review there usually isn’t someone actually reviewing the credit reports. Rather they are trying to identify accounts for special offers or for risk factors that may warrant an account action (such as closing an account).

Loreene Martinez

so if you apply for those offers you recieve in the mail, as soft inquiries, does that turn that initial offer into a hard one?

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

Yes. A hard inquiry will be created when you actually apply.

Eric

I’ve read all the comments and have learned a lot from your site. But I will try to be specific with my question. I have a credit score of 761. I only have one credit card at the moment and was thinking of adding one more. But I also have plans of buying a new car in 6 months from now. Do u think if I apply for a new credit card now, pay all my bills on time, should I be able to add back the about 5 points back that will result from the hard inquiry hit In 6 months, just in time to get a car?

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

Depending on which credit scoring model you are using, a 761 is often considered a quite respectable score that can help you get a decent auto loan rate. There’s a good chance you’ll be fine, but I can’t say for certain what will happen in six months if you get a new credit card now (in part it would depend on the model). So you’ll have to decide whether you want to take the chance, or just wait until you get the car loan.

gary faer

why is my credit score lower when Ford checked it then when I check it myself?

I see a lot of explanation about *how* hard and soft inquiries will affect your credit, but I see nothing about why.
Can anyone explain to me *why* a hard inquiry affects your credit? This is something that has never made any sense to me, and strikes me as a catch-22.
Imagine if for every job you applied for you decreased your employ-ability by 5 points. Or for every college you applied to, you decrease your likely acceptance by 5 points.
Given that we are bombarded by credit offers every single day of our lives, it would seem only fair that every time a credit card company offered you a line of credit and you rejected it, your credit score would go up 5 points. It would only be temporary – you know, two years. That’s the only scenario in which this sub-moronic practice would be fair or logical.

But I digress. I would really love an explanation. I’m sure it will be hilarious.

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

It’s because at the time the credit scoring model was created that information was found to be statistically “predictive.” In other words, consumers with XX inquiries were XX times more risky than those with fewer. But models have changed over the years.

fearless

Gerri:

Texas is a deregulated state: customers get to choose their utility providers. And there are lots of great offers out there, and you stand to save money if you shop for the best offers and switch frequently. (I’m sure the situation is similar in the other 15 deregulated states.)

But here’s the rub: utility companies will run a credit check when you apply for service. Does this affect your credit score? Or — stated another way — is that a hard or soft inquiry?

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

Yes, my understanding is these inquiries are hard inquiries and do affect your credit scores.

Daughter of Maat

When a landlord does a soft credit check, are the usually getting a full report, or does it just show that you have X amount of collections etc. My husband is past due on his child support. He pays every month, just not the full amount because he’s unemployed due to an on the job injury and needs surgery. We’re trying to buy a mobile home and have to apply to the park where the home is located and I’m concerned his child support being behind will get us denied.

http://blog.credit.com/ Kali Geldis

It really depends on the type of credit report the landlord pulls. I’d suggest you pull your free annual credit reports from AnnualCreditReport.com to provide to the mobile home park — they may accept that (and might even thank you for saving them the cost of checking your credit). Your husband’s past-due child support may not appear on the free annual report, as it’s reported to the credit bureaus differently. Here’s a good explainer on that:

I have read through all the current comments but didn’t see the exact question I am about to ask. Understanding hard and soft inquiries and their impact, I received a “hard” inquiry from an existing credit card because they were going to increase my spending limit. However, this was not authorized or requested to increase the limit. Is this legal and why a “hard” inquiry when not authorized? Can this be disputed and do they have the legal obligation to remove the inquiry?

http://www.Credit.com/ Gerri Detweiler

Your current creditors are allowed to check your credit periodically. While these inquiries are often soft inquiries, the FCRA does not specify any difference between hard or soft inquiries so it doesn’t address your specific problem unfortunately.

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